Ryou Bakura: Thief In Training
by JelloFrog
Summary: Bakura is sick and tired of Ryou being completely useless. He decides to teach him some valuable skills. Will Ryou make it out alive? Not yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello peoples! This is my first fan-fic! I'm aspiring to be a writer someday, so any reveiws would be very helpful!**

'Thoughts'

"_mindlink"_

Koe means voice and it is what Ryou calls Bakura

Yadunoshi means landlord an it is what Bakura calls Ryou

Almost forgot. I don't own any characters or anything Yu-Gi-Oh (Except some cards). They all belong to Kazuki Takahashi.

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Ryou Bakura: Thief-In-Training

Chapter 1

It was the time of day when the sun's last rays reflected off the gently swaying waves, when the bird calls slowly slipped into quiet grasshopper chirps, and when the more criminally minded headed out to find work.

Ryou Bakura woke up in the middle of this picturesque beach-side scene. He was no stranger to waking up in places he didn't fall asleep, but he usually woke in back alleys or next to dueling arenas or on blimps. He never woke up in the middle of nowhere and this was worrying for him. It was never a good idea when the spirit started behaving differently. It usually ended unwell for Ryou.

_"__Koe, what am I doing out here?"_ Questioned Ryou through the mind link.

_"I've decide that you are much to pathetic to be my host. You know nothing useful and what that school teaches you is a joke. I have decided to be very gracious and take you under my wing."_

Ryou felt his blood go cold. 'This can't be a good thing.' _"What does that mean?"_

_"It means that I have decided to make you my apprentice. Yadunoshi, I am going to teach you how to be a thief."_

'I knew it.'

_"Koe, I don't want to be a thief."_

_"I did not ask you what you wanted. I told you what you would do."_

_"I'm not stealing from people. It's wrong." _ Ryou turned around and started walking away from the house. He stopped when the millennium rings spikes pressed themselves against his chest. Bakura's voice simmered dangerously

_"You are my apprentice and I am your master. What I say to do you do. Is this understood?"_

Ryou paled. He remembered the last time the millennium ring's final defense was used against him and he certainly wasn't looking forward to a repeat performance.

_"Yes."_

_"Good." _The spikes relaxed and Ryou with them._ "Then it is time to teach you a few things. __Turn around and head for the green two-story house. That is your first target."_

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_"Stop flinching at every single noise!"_ Bakura snapped. He was standing in spirit form next to Ryou. _"I already told you that the house is empty. It is a vacation home. Nobody is suppose to be here for months. Let alone right around the corner."_

Ryou flinched again. _"Sorry."_

Bakura sighed and turned to face the house.

_"Since you have no idea how to pick locks you are going to check all the doors and windows and find one that is unlocked."_

_"Wouldn't they have locked them if they were going to be gone for months?"_

Bakura scowled. _"It is all about practice. You will need to know all of the escape routes. Keep a mental map of the house."_

_"Okay. Which window do I check first?"_

_"Do I look like I am robbing this house?"_ Bakura glared down at him. Ryou stared back. He knew for a fact that he wouldn't be robbing this house if it weren't for Bakura, so technically it was Bakura robbing the house and Ryou was still an unfortunate puppet (even if he did have slightly more free will than his normal puppet state), but he also knew that nothing in that glare suggested that 'yes' was the right answer.

_"No." _He wisely answered.

_"Exactly. You pick which one. I am not going to babysit you through this. You will have to figure out some things on your own."_

'Great. First you get me into this mess and then you leave me to pick up the pieces. Glad to see that nothing has changed.'

Ryou walked up the driveway and tried the first window on the left.

Locked.

He tried the next one.

Locked.

He walked all around the house checking all the windows and all the doors. And guess what, they were all locked.

_"Now what?" _

_ "Check all the doors and windows." _

_ "I just did that."_

_ "Idiot, you only checked the first floor."_

Ryou looked up at the second floor windows. He felt a bit faint.

_"You have got to be kidding me. I can't climb up there. I'll break my neck."_

_ "I am not expecting you to scale up the side of the building. We will work on that later."_

_ "Then how am I suppose to get up there?" _He said, ignoring the second part.

_ "If you had been paying attention to your surroundings, like I told you, then you would know how to reach the second story windows."_

_"What?" _

Bakura sighed. Ryou could feel the irritation seeping through the mind link.

_"If you walk around the house again, and this time actually watch your surroundings, then you will find something to help you get to the second story."_

_ "I was watching my surroundings." _Ryou argued.

_ "Close your eyes."_

_ "What?"_

_ "C__lose. Your. Eyes__."_ The tone left no room for argument.

Ryou closed his eyes.

_"Do not open your eyes."_

_ "Okay."_

_ "How many windows are on the first floor."_

_"What?"_

_"I want to see if you were paying attention to what I said. I told you to keep a mental map of the house in your head. This should include all escape points."_

_"Ummm... six. I think. I'm pretty sure."_ Bakura was silent. Ryou shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. _"Or maybe it was five."_

_"I do not know why I try to get anything through this thick head of yours! There are nine windows on the first floor. You were not paying attention. Search the house again and this time really pay attention to your surroundings. You do not know when this could save your life." _Bakura disappeared back into the ring.

Ryou sighed and started walking around the house again. He was about a third of the way around when he spotted it. A ladder was leaned on its side and propped up next to the house. Ryou walked over and picked it up. He leaned it against the house and started climbing up.

'This window is going to be locked too.' Ryou could feel his irritation growing with each rung he climbed. 'This is crazy. I could be at home sleeping right now. Instead I have to listen to my crazy Koe and break into a house in the middle of nowhere.' He reached the window and glared at it. He grabbed the ledge of the window and jerked it up, expecting to be with resistance. However, much to his surprise, it shot up. His fingers lost the edge of the window and he tumbled forward. His feet slipped off the ladder and he banged his chin on the rungs.

His fingers managed to grab the ladder rungs and he held on for dear life. His feet found the ladder and he bear-hugged it, not daring to let go. He stayed there, frozen, blood pounding in his ears.

After a minute his breathing slowed and he relaxed his death-grip. He pulled himself through the window and collapsed on the floor.

Bakura appeared next to him and burst out laughing.

_"I knew there would be difficulties, but I did not think you would maim yourself on the first day. __You haven't even stolen anything."_

_ "Glad to see you find this so funny." _Ryou rubbed his chin. _"That hurt. I think it might bruise."_

Bakura rolled his ghostly eyes. _"Grow up. It's barely a bump," _Bakura looked at him. "A_nd stand up. There is no reason to whimper on the floor."_

Ryou stood up and waited for his eyes to adjust. He was in a small bedroom. Dust covered the furniture and spiderwebs decorated the corners.

_"What do I do now?" _

_ "You steal something. I really do not care what you steal, but it has to be worth something. You cannot go around stealing napkins."_

Ryou looked around the room. It was practically bare. A bed and a dresser. Maybe a different room would yield better results. He exited the room and entered a hallway with many doors. He entered the door to his right. It was another bedroom, but this one was scattered with nick-knacks.

He approached a shelf and saw it was littered with tiny duck statues. Ducks of all shapes and sizes doing a variety of pun-related activities.

'Am I actually going to do this? Breaking in is one thing, but actually stealing something? What if it had sentimental value? Someone will notice it missing. What if they call the cops? They can't prove anything... unless they swipe for prints.' He glanced at his hands. His bare hands. 'Shit. I'm not wearing gloves. They can find me.' He started backing away from the shelf, shaking his head.

_"Koe I can't do this. The cops will find me and I don't want to go to jail. I can't get away with it."_

_ "Will you stop being such a baby! The cops will not find you. No one will miss one statue amongst all of these. Even if the cops did suspect you, you would not have to worry. I am not going to let you be taken to jail. The cops will suffer before I let that happen."_

Ryou gulped and approached the shelf again. He reached out and swiped a small statue. He stared at it in his hands. The small smiling duck glared back at him accusing him of the crime.

'I've done it. I stole something. I've committed a crime. My mother would not have approved of this.'

_"Congratulations." _Bakura said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. _"You stole about five dollars worth and that is only if this was a duck related tourist hot-spot. Its close to worthless, but it will have to do. I'm not sure if your precious little heart could handle anything more expensive right now."_

Ryou jerked as he was pulled out of the body and pushed into his soul room.

_"What? Why am I here Koe?" _Ryou said appearing in spirit form.

_ "You need sleep. You took much longer than I thought you would. You need all the sleep you can get now. Becoming a thief isn't easy work and you have a long couple of nights ahead of you."_

'Great. More nights like this.' Ryou thought rubbing his aching chin. 'It seems like he really is going to go through with this and train me to become a master thief. I was hoping that this was a one time thing he cooked up because he was bored.' He sighed. 'I guess training me to be a thief is better than him plotting my friends death. I'll play along for now and keep him busy.'

_"Goodnight then Koe." _Ryou faded back into his soul room.

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Bakura's POV

Bakura glared at the small duck statue. 'Utterly pitiful.' He pocketed the figurine and headed back down the ladder. 'He is going to take a lot of work. It is hardly worth it, but I am not going to be associated with this fool. A duck statue! It is ridiculous. I will have to teach him what valuable means.' He checked Ryou's watch. Midnight. 'And I still have to find a suitable target for tomorrow. This is going to be a long night. A couple of long nights. Maybe I should work out a schedule.'

He continued to grumble to himself as he started the long walk home.

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**And that's it! I don't know when I'll post next, but hopefully it's soon.**

** Thank you all for reading and I hope all of you have a good day!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I want to thank AndiNara and SaraGeorgia for betaing for me. I couldn't have done it without you guys!**

** I want everybody to look at the url. It says Fanfiction dot net. This clearly states that I do not own any of these characters. I'll even be nice and tell you who does own these. It's Kazuki Takahashi. So there you go.**

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Ryou woke up in his bed safe and sound. He groaned, as he remembered his fun-filled night, and sat up. He immediately fell back down as pain lanced through his arms. He pulled up his sleeves and gasped at the purple and blue bruises decorating his arms. He sighed and grabbed some aspirin from his nightstand. Then he started shambling through his morning routine still very tired from his late night. He had just finished when Bakura appeared before him.

_"It is time for more training."_

_ "Really? Now?" _A grumpy Ryou replied. _"I haven't had breakfast yet and it's daytime. Are we going to attempt a daring daytime robbery?" _

_ "Eventually, but you are not ready yet. You need to learn much, much more before you attempt that."_

Ryou shook his head and walked through Bakura's spirit, heading down the stairs.

_"No. First I'm going to get breakfast, then you can start with __whatever__ crazy scheme you cooked up this time."_

He suddenly blacked out. He managed to catch a glimpse of his soul room before he was thrust back into his body. A body that was quickly heading downwards. His head hit the floor hard. Very hard.

"Owww." He groaned holding his head. Bakura appeared next to him.

_"Oh, look at that." _He sneered._ "You can't even walk properly. It's sad really."_

"You tripped me!" Ryou shouted. Bakura glared down at him.

_"You do not get to talk back to me. Ever. You got off lucky this time." _The millennium rings tines pressed hard against Ryou's chest, breaking the skin slightly. _"The consequences will be severe if __this ever happens again."_

Ryou was starting to wake up and was beginning to realize exactly who he was messing with.

'Is it too late to wish for the old Koe back? All I had to do was stay in my soul room. It was boring and he was actively plotting my friends deaths, but I didn't have to jump through these hoops. I'm getting more injuries now then I have ever gotten in my life.'

_"Sorry Koe." _He tried to change the subject. _"What are we doing today?"_

Bakura didn't answer and Ryou found himself in his soul room, again. 'What am I doing here? Did I upset him again? I really hope not.'

The door to his soul room flew open and Bakura walked in.

"Come with me." Ryou follow Bakura out of the room. He gasped in surprise at the scene before him. He had never been out of his soul room before. When ever he was in there the door was locked. Over time he had learned how to form a spirit outside of the body and how to see and hear what Bakura could see and hear, but he had never seen this.

A long endless hallway stretched from left to right. It was dark and despairing and filled with fog, but that's not what captivated Ryou's sight. An enormous double door stood in the hallway across from Ryou's small wooden door. It was made from ancient stone and cemented with anguish. It filled his heart with dread.

"What's that?"

"Are you an idiot? It's my soul room."

Ryou stared at the behemoth of a door. "Oh."

"This way." Bakura started running down the right hallway.

"Wait up!" Ryou dashed after him.

The doors soon vanished behind them. Bakura never slowed or showed any signs of stopping. Ryou could feel his breath growing labored and he developed a stitch in his side. He wanted to stop, but he didn't know the layout of this corridor. He had to stick with Bakura. If there was a sudden split in the corridor he could get lost.

After what seemed like forever a light developed at the end of the tunnel. Ryou followed Bakura into the source of the light. An enormous cave-like cavern greeted his eyes. It stretched out further than the eye could see. You couldn't even see it's ceiling. Looming nearby, large splotches of shadows dominated the space.

"What _is_ this place?"

"This is your new practice area. Every day we will run from our soul rooms to this room, so you can practice here."

"Every day?" Ryou chest and legs ached at the thought of it.

"You need to build up your strength. This is where you will practice essential thieving skills with out fear of harm. Any damage you get here will not affect your real body, but unfortunately for you, it will still hurt like it was your real body."

'That's going to be fun.'

"We will start with self-defense. A thief has many enemies. It is important to learn how to protect yourself against these enemies." One of the black floaty blobs floated closer to them. "This is a shadow. One of the powers of the millennium ring is the ability to control shadows. With my mind I can form the shadow into any shape I want."

The shadow formed into a vague humanoid shape.

"We will start the lesson evaluating what, if any, fighting skills you already have. Start!"

"Wait... What?" Ryou turned around and saw that the humanoid blob was running toward him, so he did the only reasonable thing to do and started running for his life.

"That's cheating." Bakura said. Large black walls formed around Ryou and the blob, trapping Ryou in a corner. Ryou turned to face the blob and just barely missed his face getting smashed in.

"Koe, he's going to kill me!"

"Probably." Bakura said in a bored tone. "Punch him. Don't just stand there."

Luckily, Ryou had some experience dodging attacks. He discovered that the blob was actually much slower than the people that were usually beating him up. Ryou took advantage of this opportunity and stuck. The punch, unsurprisingly, barely made a dent in the blob.

"That's simply pitiful. You couldn't knock out a baby with a punch like that."

Unfortunately the punch had thrown Ryou's dodging out of balance. The blob took advantage of this and hit him in the gut. Ryou bent over and collapsed to the floor, wheezing. Ryou tried to quickly stand back up, using the wall as a support, but the blob kicked his feet out from under him. Ryou fell back to the floor. The blob continued to kick at him. Ryou decided that the best course of action would be to curl up in a ball and wait for it to stop. After all that worked with all the other bullies he had faced.

"Stop. Stop." Bakura waved the blob away with a motion of his hand. Surprisingly Ryou's pain and his bruises went away as soon as the blob did. He stood up and faced Bakura. "You can not give up like that. The enemies a thief has aren't schoolyard bullies. They will kill you if you give them that opportunity."

'I Don't Want To Be A Thief!' Ryou wanted to shout this from the top of his lungs, but he knew he couldn't. If there was no lasting damage to the real body here, then Bakura could hurt him as much as he wanted and he wouldn't suffer any consequences. Ryou didn't think that that particular remark would go over very well with Bakura, so he stood there with his fists clenched, but he was silent.

"As for your fighting style, it's weak. You seem to have some experience with dodging, but you don't look like you've ever punched anything in your life. We will have to work on building up some arm strength first."

"How is building up arm strength in here going to help me out there?" Ryou argued, letting some of his anger through.

Bakura scowled at him, but answered his question. "Whatever strength you gain in here is directly translated into real body strength. Which is why I am stronger than you even though we share the same body. It can only go as far as your body can go, so you won't suddenly gain super human strength."

"Oh."

"Getting back to what I was talking about before you interrupted me, you need to build up your arm strength. You can start with push-ups."

Ryou grumbled but got down and did a push-up. It was a bit clumsy, but not too bad.

"Now keep doing them until I tell you to stop."

Ryou continued to do push-ups. After a couple of push-ups his arms grew weak and his tempo slow to a grinding halt. He struggled to lift himself, but it was no hope. Bakura face-palmed.

"I should just give up now. There is no way that you will ever be a good thief."

"Why isn't the pain going away? Last time it went away when the blob did."

"What blob?"

"That thing I fought."

Bakura scowled. "It's not a blob. It's a shadow. Pay attention."

"Ok, but this pain isn't going away."

"The wounds you received from the shadow were caused by the shadow, so they went away when it did. You are the one making your arms hurt and the pain and exhaustion will go away when you leave here." Ryou groaned. "Now get back to pushups."

Ryou started push-ups again. After Bakura figured Ryou had done enough he had Ryou take a lap around the enormous cavern and after Ryou collapsed at the end of the run he decided that it was time to take a break.

"Alright it's time to head back." Bakura said.

"Awesome. How do we get back?"

"Same way we got here."

Ryou was too exhausted to even complain. He just followed Bakura back down the long hallway. When they finally made it back to their soul rooms Ryou was ready to collapse and sleep for a week, but he had no such luck. As soon as they were in their soul rooms Ryou found himself in control of his body.

A refreshingly non-painful body. Apart from the bruises he had before his body was pain free. Except for his stomach. His tummy was currently complaining about the lack of yummy food, so Ryou headed to the kitchen and started making breakfast.

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**And that's the end of this chapter. I'm not going to be home this weekend so I don't know when I'll be able to update next.**

** Thank you for reading and I hope all of you have a good day.**


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